Men's Tennis

ISLANDER TENNIS DROPS ITA CONSOLATION MATCH TO IOWA

Feb 02, 2010

Waco - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis team, a No.
3 seed in the ITA Kick-Off Tournament's Baylor regional, lost a
hard-fought dual match against No. 58 Iowa on Monday morning , the
No. 4 seed. The Islanders lost by a 4-2 final to the Hawkeyes in
the consolation match of the regional.

"This was a great tournament, only the best 64 teams in division
I were here," said Director of Tennis Steve Moore. "We didn't win
either of our matches but, I've learned over the years as a coach
to be very disciplined about judging a team about things like their
effort, focus and resiliency.

"The tenacity with which they compete, based on those things, I
was actually very proud of this young team this weekend and I feel
that they are on an awesome road."

TAMUCC moves to 1-4 on the year while Iowa evens its record at
1-1 so far.

The Islanders started the day by taking the doubles portion of
the match by a 2-1 final. In No. 2 doubles, Alex Pavlov and Robert
Raguz competed well, taking an 8-5 final in the first completed
flight. Iowa evened the score by taking No. 1 doubles with a close
9-7 decision over Dmitry Novikov and James Langford. The deciding
flight came at No. 3 doubles as Andrew Maingot and Nathan Robinson
took another 9-7 final to clinch the point for the Islanders.

"They are getting better every week and growing closer together
every week," said Moore. "This is quite an introduction to the
season, playing four nationally ranked, NCAA Tournament type
teams.

"I really, really like our guys and I like what we have
developing here."

In singles, they were only able to take one flight, with
Langford downing Nikita Zotov 6-0, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Robinson
fell 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5, Raguz lost a 7-5, 6-2 final in No. 4
singles, Pavlov was downed 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 3 spot and Maingot
lost 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6 singles to finish the match.

"Obviously when you don't win, you're never satisfied and there
is a lot you need to improve on," said Moore. "But this group has
the character to do the work and they will get there."

After competing in one of the most prestigious tournaments on
the national scale, the Islanders face Southland rival Texas-Pan
American on Fri., Feb. 12 in their first home match of the season.
The two teams will face off at the HEB Tennis Center starting at 6
PM.

"We're a very hungry group and we will improve every week," said
Moore. "I'm really looking forward to getting back to work with
them this week.